And reflecting on the past year the TD said that the creation of Irish Water was one that the party should have avoided.

He told the Irish Mirror: “We were under the cosh to build a huge utility like Irish Water. To get a national metering programme in place and charge for water in the space of three years, which we just should have said no to. I’m sorry we didn’t.

“Within Government, we certainly had that battle with Fine Gael. At a critical point, the decision we made was to stick with it as opposed to pulling down the Government at that stage.”

He added: “Because we were afraid of the consequences for our country if we pulled the Government down. But we paid too high a price for that and we should certainly have stood our ground in relation to Irish Water.”

Mr Howlin said they shouldn’t have rushed the setting up of Irish Water, a project that should have been done over ten years.